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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) – A New York serial killer who was convicted after he voluntarily gave up a DNA sample has been sentenced to 75 years to life in prison.

Francisco Acevedo was sentenced Tuesday.

He was found guilty in November of killing three women — Kimberly Moore, Tawanda Hodges and Maria Ramos — in Yonkers between 1989 and 1996.

The mother of one of the victims told CBS2’s Lou Young how it felt to recieve the news that her daughter’s murder had finally been solved after nineteen years.

“When John came to my home to tell me they had him I was happy,” said Devone Hodges.

John, is Detective John Geiss, the officer who made the match in a most unlikely way.

“He was locked up for DWI, but his DNA wasn’t taken for that. It was taken because he was applying for parole, and one of the stipulations was that he had to give a DNA sample,” said Geiss.

The 43-year-old Acevedo was not suspected in the murders until 2009, when he was in jail on a drunken driving charge and submitted an application for parole. One condition of the application was a DNA sample.

When his DNA hit the state database, investigators saw that it matched DNA found on all three women.

“This case clearly exemplifies the need for the expansion of New York State’s DNA data base to collect DNA from all convicted criminal defendants who are found guilty of any felony and of penal law misdemeanors,” District Attorney Janet DiFiore said.

(TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)